Page 34 of Roses Are Dead
He laughed. “See? She’s safe with you, Bear. Safer than with anyone else. You may pretend you have no morals whatsoever, but you’re an honorable man. I wouldn’t have you any other way. So, I’m begging you, fake it… for the cops Carl’s going to sic on you, for the ol’ ladies who’ll sic Wolf’s woman on you, and I don’t need to remind you that Tits will skewer your ass if she finds out you made a deal for this woman, and lastly, do it for the club. We don’t need the heat right now. You have got to make it look like you’re legitimately dating her or some shit. And make sure she’s treated better than any of your priors, got it?”
I couldn’t argue with a direct order like that.
“I ain’t seducing her.”
“No one said you had to do that. Just turn on the charm. Be nice. Women appreciate nice.”
Griz’s mutter was loud. “Bear ain’t got charm, and he certainly ain’t nice.” There was more I didn’t hear, but it made more than one person on the other end laugh at my expense.
“Fuck off, all of you.” I hung up. Jackson had a full trip to get over the slight. It served him right for not taking me with him. If he had, none of this would have happened.
Or at least not to me.
I walked inside, and caught Roishin staring at my altar. Her hand hovered over my little statue of Thor resting on his hammer. It was a replica of a marble carving from the 19th century. Sprout’s wife found it online and bought it for me.
“What are you doing?”
Roishin snatched her hand back. “I was admiring your altar. Thor?” She indicated the statue and the red candle.
I nodded. It didn’t look like she’d touched anything, but I checked just the same. The last thing I needed was for some witch to fondle my junk and screw up the energy of it.
As I straightened the bottle of Trappist Ale, I spoke, “Since you recognized it for what it is, and because of those marks you drew back in the shop, I’m guessing you’re pagan. And likely a witch. Did you have an altar? Maybe you can set one up somewhere in here.”
Her silence was curious.
“Roishin?”
She swallowed, and her eyes were haunted. “I had one, at my apartment. But it’s all gone.”
Carl. She didn’t even have to say his name, and I knew that sanctimonious son of a bitch did something.
“How long ago was this?”
“Barely a month,” she whispered, head hung low.
“Any chance you can get it back?”
Her head barely moved, but the side-to-side motion ignited my fury.
“He fucked with it, didn’t he?”
She turned away and I might have caught her wiping an eye, but she rallied. “I think I’ll sleep on the couch in the basement.”
That wasn’t a bedroom. It wasn’t even set up as a proper room. All my exercise gear was down there. “Why?”
“Because if someone breaks in, the last place they’ll go digging around in is the basement, and if they do, they’ll trip over your barbells, and I’ll hear them.”
“You ain’t sleeping in no basement.”
Her head tilted, jaw set. “It’s my choice, isn’t it?”
Ah, there she was, that hellcat daring me to lay down the law again. I smiled. Jackson had shit for brains. He thought everything could be solved by sex. “I vow it is.” I laid a hand on Thor’s head and expanded. “On my honor as a warrior, and as a servant of the mighty God of Thunder, I swear your choices will be your own. The only thing I ask in return is that you respect my ways, my people, and my decisions.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“No.”
I tried again. “On my honor, you can sleep where you want in this house. Be it in the basement, or at my side, I will not take that decision from you.”
